Summer lull held at bay

摘要

June turned out to be another positive month in the USG. There were fears that demand would drop and tonnage would back up, but the only route that struggled was the USG/NWE trade lane. Benzene was the surprise in this direction and around 40,000t were booked in total, but at the expense of styrene and ethanol. USG/Far East saw tightness in space at the start of June that effectively stretched through into July. Large lots of PX and EDC helped fill the space, along with ethanol, ACN, phenol and biodiesel. Rates saw little change however. USG/India-MEG was weak for the first half of June, but by end month owners were reporting only small amounts of open space.